A vintage photograph of two men dressed in costumes fashioned from animal skins (with one man in blackface), possibly at Victor Harbor, South Australia, circa 1911
A vintage gelatin silver photograph (141 × 88 mm), printed as a postcard (with '9 11' printed in the top right-hand corner).
Light crease across the top quarter; tiny chips to the emulsion on the corners; message in ink on the verso (but the card is not postally used); in very good condition.
The message is from Jim: 'Dear Miss Dorothy | Just a PC to let you see I didn't forget you when I had my photo taken.... I saw Miss Steward in the Harbour on Saturday'. We attribute this photograph to Vernon Ragless Padman, not least because the item was recently purchased with a small collection of identified Padman images, which almost certainly came originally from the photographer or his estate. He was born at Middleton on South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula in 1891. He appears to have been a keen amateur photographer, and took numerous photographs of the local Ngarrindjeri people, including at Point McLeay (now known as Raukkan) on the southern shore of Lake Alexandrina (see South Australian Museum AA245/1). The men in this image (possibly father and son, according to a note with the collection), the location and the occasion have not been identified - perhaps something of the nature of the Coronation Day celebrations in Victor Harbor on 22 June 1911? - but the older man appears to be dressed as a rustic, and his companion as an Indigenous youth.
Item #147219
Price (AUD):
$750.00